Holy Rosary Catholic School is dedicated to the faith formation of our children. Read below to explore the activities we do to help our students reach their God-given potential.

Prayer

Service

Family Groups

Retreats

Holy Readers

Resources

Prayer

Second graders leading Mass

At Holy Rosary prayer is a natural part of our day and is integrated into the daily activities of our school. For example, each morning we begin our day in prayer, we give thanks to God before meals, and we have a daily religion lesson as part of classroom instruction. K-6 grade students attend Mass once a week and pray the Rosary (or Stations of the Cross during Lent) once a month. Grade levels take turns leading these two activities, giving students the opportunity to practice their public speaking skills.

Vocation Box
Every person on Earth has a vocation from God—be it to the consecrated religious life, to marriage, or to remain single. Within the state of life to which God calls us, He also calls us to glorify Him through a particular career based on our unique gifts.
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With this in mind, each week one family from the school volunteers to take home our vocation box to foster family discussion and prayer for vocations. The box contains Bible readings, prayers, question prompts, biographies of those in religious formation from our diocese, and other items to help facilitate this discussion, as well as complete instructions. (Find a digital copy here.)

If your family would like to take the vocation box home and pray for vocations for one week, please follow this link to sign up.

ALL families are welcome to take the box home. If you cannot be at Mass to accept the box, we can make alternate arrangements.

Confession
Four times a year students who have received their First Reconciliation have the opportunity to go to confession as part of the school day. Please help your child make a good confession by guiding them through an examination of conscience and role-playing the steps of confession that can be found in this guide.

Altar Serving
All 4-6th grade students who have received their First Holy Communion are encouraged to help glorify God by sharing their time and talent through altar serving at weekend Mass and Wednesday morning Masses during the school year. Training is held periodically by the parish server coordinator. 

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Service - Corporal Works of Mercy Projects

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​​At Holy Rosary, we strive to develop well-rounded students that will contribute to the strength and intelligence of our community both before they graduate and after. For example, in addition to being given challenging curriculum, each month one grade level takes a turn leading a school-wide service project based on the 7 corporal works of mercy: feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead.

“The works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor.”
– Catechism of the Catholic Church #2247

2nd graders collecting winter accessories for St. Vincent de Paul to help "Clothe the Naked".

October:  2nd Grade, Clothe the Naked

November:  6th Grade, Bury the Dead

December:  Kindergarten, Feed the Hungry

January:  4th Grade, Visit the Sick

February:  5th Grade, Pray for the Imprisoned

March:  3rd Grade, Shelter the Homeless
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April:  1st Grade, Drink for the Thirsty

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Family Groups

Several times a year we divide our K-6 students into family groups comprised of students from each grade.
The groups complete various faith-based activities together while building community across grade levels and inviting the older students to become leaders by helping the younger ones.

Retreats and Special Activities

The fifth grade presents the Stations of the Cross

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​We begin each Advent and Lent with a school-wide retreat to reflect on the purpose of the season. Each year the second grade class performs an Advent skit and the fifth graders perform a live Stations of the Cross. We celebrate major liturgical feast days throughout the year and hold special formation events periodically. Some of our favorite past activities have included participating in a hunger banquet to raise awareness for global food insecurity and walking through a mini-Jerusalem exhibit to better understand Jesus’ final days (Holy Week). 

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Holy Readers

We encourage our students to further their faith formation on their own by participating in our Holy Readers Program. Each time a student reads a faith-based story or watches a religious video in their free time at school or at home they are encouraged to complete an age-appropriate Holy Reader report form. Examples of holy reader materials include a Bible story or a chapter of the Bible, a biography of a saint, each Mass reading or homily, a catechism video, or a moral story. Secular or AR books with a positive moral lesson can also be used as holy readers if the good moral learned is included in the holy reader form. 

Each completed report earns the student a quarter to donate to local charities our school is promoting to encourage our students to grow in moral character by helping others.  Students who have completed 10 or more reports are featured on our Holy Readers Wall of Fame.
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You may print blank report forms by following the links below. You may assist students unable to read or
write on their own. Click here for a list of AR books that could also count as holy readers.

PS-1st Grade

2nd-3rd Grade

4th-6th Grade

Additional Resources

Free faith formation activities and games:
http://www.ewtn.com/ewtnkids/index.asp
https://www.holyheroes.com/Learn-the-Catholic-Faith-s/146.htm
https://littlesaintadventures.com/

Adult faith formation resources:
https://www.loyolapress.com/
http://heidi-gram.blogspot.com/
https://formed.org/ (Contact the parish office, 208.522.4366, to get the log-in code.)
Click the link to the current parish bulletin on the St. John Paul II site: http://www.ifcatholics.net/

All Saints’ Day costume ideas:
http://www.catholicicing.com/all-saints-day-costume-ideas-for-girls/
http://www.catholicicing.com/all-saints-day-costume-ideas-for-boys/

Resources for Research on saints
https://www.catholic.org/saints/fun_facts_arch.php
https://www.loyolapress.com/our-catholic-faith/saints/saints-stories-for-all-ages

Order of the Mass
For Adults - English
For Children - English
For Adults - Spanish
For Children - Spanish

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